Fight Or Flight Quotes

“we're thieves, we're rats. We know when to fight and when to run.”
― Victoria Aveyard, Red Queen

“People talk about fight or flight? That's nonsense. It's fight and flight.”
― Amanda Bouchet, A Promise of Fire

“Fear of a bully, fear of a volcano; the power within you does not distinguish. It does not recognize degree.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season

“The way I see it, our natural human instinct is to fight or flee that which we perceive to be dangerous. Although this mechanism evolved to protect us, it serves as the single greatest limiting process to our growth. To put this process in perspective and not let it rule my life, I
expect the unexpected;
make the unfamiliar familiar;
make the unknown known;
make the uncomfortable comfortable;
believe the unbelievable.”
― Charles F. Glassman, Brain Drain - The Breakthrough That Will Change Your Life

“During the time of stress, the “fight-or-flight” response is on and the self-repair mechanism is disabled. It is then when we say that the immunity of the body goes down and the body is exposed to the risk for disease. Meditation activates relaxation, when the sympathetic nervous system is turned off and the parasympathetic nervous system is turned on, and natural healing starts.”
― Annie Wilson, Effect of Meditation on Cardiovascular Health, Immunity & Brain Fitness

“The detection of a person as safe or dangerous triggers neurobiologically determined pro-social or defensive behaviors.
Even though we may not always be aware of danger on a cognitive level, on a neurophysiological level, our body has already started a sequence of neural processes that would facilitate adaptive defense behaviors such as fight, flight or freeze. ”
― Stephen W. Porges, The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-Regulation

“HYPERAROUSAL
After a traumatic experience, the human system of self-preservation seems to go onto permanent alert, as if the danger might return at any moment. Physiological arousal continues unabated. In this state of hyerarousal, which is the first cardinal symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder, the traumatized person startles easily, reacts irritably to small provocations, and sleeps poorly. Kardiner propsed that "the nucleus of the [traumatic] neurosis is physioneurosis."8 He believed that many of the symptoms observed in combat veterans of the First World War-startle reactions, hyperalertness, vigilance for the return of danger, nightmares, and psychosomatic complaints-could be understood as resulting from chronic arousal of the autonomic nervous system. He also interpreted the irritability and explosively aggressive behavior of traumatized men as disorganized fragments of a shattered "fight or flight" response to overwhelming danger.”
― Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

“There are no creatures that walk the earth, not even those animals we have labelled cowards, which will not show courage when required to defend themselves.”
― Alexandre Dumas, The Vicomte de Bragelonne

“He tried to decide if he was really ashamed of being afraid, and decided that he was not. Fear was there for a purpose. It was wired into any creature that had not completely turned its back on its evolutionary inheritance and so remade itself in whatever image it coveted. The more sophisticated you became, the less you relied on fear and pain to keep you alive; you could afford to ignore them because you had other means of coping with the consequences if things went badly.”
― Iain M. Banks, Look to Windward

“When you become aggressive in arguments, you force the other person to become defensive which means they’ll either get ready to fight you or ready to flee from you.”
― Sam Owen, 500 Relationships And Life Quotes: Bite-Sized Advice For Busy People

“While reliving trauma is dramatic, frightening, and potentially self-destructive, over time a lack of presence can be even more damaging. This is a particular problem with traumatized children. The acting-out kids tend to get attention; the blanked-out ones don’t bother anybody and are left to lose their future bit by bit.”
― Bessel Van Der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score / Trauma and Recovery / Hidden Healing Powers

“Are you gay, Cherie?
Me, No… I’m not anything… I-I mean I prefer not to indulge, I stammered.
“Really... how do you mean?”
Well love has been an elusive story, like a fairytale adults tell children but I have never known any of it to be true. In reality it reminds me of religion. I am not sure God is real either, if God is real why do so many innocents suffer?
Innocents suffer because it is their destiny to suffer.
What? What does that mean?” I’m annoyed.
God has nothing to do with it. We are born into this world to experience all that is not God-like, so we can then be inspired to reach for higher spiritual goals.
I have never thought of it that way before. If that is so then I must be preparing for sainthood. Am I to think that all of my suffering as a child has been to prepare me for greatness?”
― Darwun St James, Angel Sins

“The bodies state of red alert brings about a series of psychological changes, driven by gathering tides of adrenaline or cortisol. These are the fight or flight hormones, which act to help and organism respond to external stresses. But when a stress is chronic not acute, when it persists for years and is caused by something that cannot be outrun, then these biochemical alterations wreak havoc on the body. Lonely people are restless sleepers and experience a reduction in the restorative function of sleep. Loneliness drives up blood pressure, accelerates ageing, weakens the immune system and acts as a precursor to cognitive decline. According to a 2010 study, "Loneliness predicts increased morbidity and mortality". Which is an elegant way of saying that loneliness can prove fatal.”
― Olivia Laing, The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone

“Correctly identifying a negative emotion takes the brain out of fight-or-flight mode and into problem-solving mode, out of tension, anger and confusion and into ease, calm and clarity.”
― Sam Owen, 500 Relationships And Life Quotes: Bite-Sized Advice For Busy People

“The terrifying fear of a crash had triggered the fight-or-flight response in the child, making him burn a mule, but only he knew about it—thanks to his tight and reliable underpants.”
― Pawan Mishra, Coinman: An Untold Conspiracy

“Negative emotional states are a breeding ground for mistakes.”
― Sam Owen, 500 Relationships And Life Quotes: Bite-Sized Advice For Busy People

“We sometimes run for our life to our death.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, P for Pessimism: A Collection of Funny yet Profound Aphorisms

“I refuse to stand on a table and wait for a miracle --- or, more likely, imminent death, Cresswell. Either help me remove my skirts, or stand back. "
"We're about to die and this is your shameless request?"
"We most certainly are not going to perish here, Thomas.”
― Kerri Maniscalco, Hunting Prince Dracula

“Fear was the hand of the devil holding a scalding hot branding iron and touching your brain and your stomach and yelling at you to run with leaden feet.”
― Dan Groat, Monarchs and Mendicants

“Fear is your growth agent in disguise,
only if you choose fight over flight.
It compels you to up your game to
survive.”
― Drishti Bablani

“It's not my story to tell, but Jason told me about how you call her ‘little bird' and you're right she can be flight or fight”
― Sarah Clay, Never Enough

“Even if I'm petrified of not being enough for him to let me in. I know I can fight or fly at the moment and I think I might decide to fight for once.”
― Sarah Clay, Never Enough

“Hate comes from Fear
Fear comes from Threat
Threat leads to Fight/Flight (our animal instinct)
Fight/Flight leads to Destruction
Destruction induces more Hate

Don’t follow your animal instincts.”
― Charles F Glassman

“Fight or flight was for ordinary things in a now-distant ordinary world. All he could do now was watch those gnashing teeth in abject horror. But when she finally saw him, that vile eye rolled in his direction. Finally, he found that his throat could scream and his legs could run.”
― E.D. Casalena, Necropolis: An Anthology of Ghost Stories

“Trauma has a way of overwhelming us. When we are threatened, our first response is fight, flight, or freeze.”
― Kenny Weiss, Your Journey To Success: How to Accept the Answers You Discover Along the Way

“We often think of fight or flight as the main defensive reaction human beings turn to when faced with a threat. When under stress, we flee or hunker down for the impending battle. While this reaction does characterize a pervasive human tendency, researchers have documented another stress-response system that many people engage in when under threat: a “tend and befriend” response. They seek out other people for support and care.”
― Ethan Kross, Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It

“Bilbo almost stopped breathing, and went stiff himself. He was desperate. He must get away, out of this horrible darkness, while he had any strength left. He must fight. He must stab the foul thing, put its eyes out, kill it. It meant to kill him. No, not a fair fight. He was invisible now. Gollum had no sword. Gollum had not actually threatened to kill him, or tried yet. And he was miserable, alone, lost. A sudden understanding, a pity mixed with horror, welled up in Bilbo's heart: a glimpse of endless unmarked days without light or hope of betterment, hard stone, cold fish, sneaking and whispering. All these thoughts passed in a flash of a second. He trembled. And then quite suddenly in another flash, as if lifted by a new strength and resolve, he leaped.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again

“I used the role of fight-or-flight in human survival as an excuse to justify my addiction to depression and anxiety; I saw them as survival traits, believing that I would perish without them. However, the key here is that fight-or-flight is an automatic physiological reaction, making it often more dependent on instinct, not initiative. When a person starts getting stressed, or when their fight-or-flight response is activated, they don’t carefully evaluate whether or not this is something worth getting anxious about; they just get anxious automatically. Having their brains become numb, their hearts palpitate, and their adrenaline course their veins just happens automatically; you don’t intentionally control that. That is what makes the woman so blank and emotionless—it is her, or my, strict and rigid dependency on fight-or-flight! By being so deeply contingent on an automatic instinct, I had little time for true introspection. It is like the instinct controlled me, instead of the other way around.”
― Lucy Carter, For the Intellect

“Someone just broke into your house and they are looking for you…you don’t have a phone to call the police. Do you A. Go toward them w/a weapon of sorts to combat or B. Hide w/weapon of sorts until they find you?

I’m going straight toward them because the way my anxiety is set up, nobody puts baby in a corner! Sitting in a closet wouldn’t work for me. I’m shooting everything that moves.”
― Niedria Kenny

“I've been on the very top. I've been as happy as a man can be. I've had the greatest joys. The greatest friends. I've had victories and I've had....love. And then...something happens. You lose something or...someone or...and there it is again. I'm there again. Mother's tangled. Father's yelling. I'm ten and I'm on my damn knees. And I'm scared out of my damn mind. And feeling that, I say...I become...something, I do things....I'm not...I am myself. But I'm not what I want to be or what I should be. I'm scared. And I'll do anything to get out of the fright.”
― Tom King, Batman, Vol. 8: Cold Days